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Monthly Archives: July 2013

Yesterday my uncle and aunt offered me es cendol (indonesian jelly with ice?). They usually bought it in the small stall in front of a mini market. It’s a typical street food stall. With my burning throat, I immediately said no. I told them I cant trust the quality of Indonesian street food; the hygiene of each and every ingredients they used. If it’s not the ice cube, it might be the sugar, or even the coconut milk. My aunt told me I was too paranoid.
But am I?
This photo was taken inside a public transport during red light. Inside the box are tofu’s! Apparently they moving tofu without even bother to close the lid. They just placed them inside a box and put them in an opened-roof truck. They did soak the tofu in the water to keep the tofu fresh, but I am also not sure whether the water is hygiene. With heavy congestion in Indonesia, I can swear you that the tofu is being exposed directly to emission from cars and other vehicles.
I dont know if this is actually okay for tofu, but seeing this made me cringe. I could be one of the people who eat that heavily-air-pollution-contaminated tofu!
So am I being too paranoid now?

Sore throat has always been my enemy since I understand how painful it was to have one and how it is just the beginning of even more serious problem with my health. Anyway, dad bought me these strips to relief the sore throat but unfortunately it didnt help that much. Meaning I need full total rest + doctor.
But I will try to fight against it for now!

Actually i want to post another photo for today, but technical difficulty forces me to tell about something else.
Anyway, I am quite busy these days preparing for wedding. Yeay finally the wedding is within my grasp!
I need to find the best jilbab style for my ceremony. Even this seemingly easy task makes me want to go crazy, the imagination is endless!

Her name is Eghy. We often called her Nok Eghy. Nok is Javanese calling for little dear girl. Sometimes we call her Si Sepek. Sepek comes from the word Pesek or small nose. She is my niece and now joining our family in my house. Her hobby? Eat and sleep, gosh she does eat a lot!
My parents love to tease her, maybe they prepare themselves before they got real grandchild..hehe

As the title of this post says; the main focus of the picture is the empty floor.
Just now, I saw an old man walking ahead me so slow I almost got impatient and yelling inside my head. When I finally passed him, I saw he is holding a blind cane; yes, he is blind.
I immediately feel bad about the man, it must be difficult for him trying to “read” the floor, because it’s such an empty floor. What I meant by empty is, I keep seeing a specialized paved floor for blind people in Japan. They are everywhere in Japan, in subway, station, or main pedestrian walk. Sometimes they are even equipped with audio (like announcing that there will be a restroom in the right side or something, yes it is very cool indeed). I never really mind it or care about it until today. I mean, I never realize how a big help it must be for blind people to have such paved-floor. But just because we dont use it, it doesnt mean that it is not important for others, right?

Saw this poster at station and it immediately reminds me about something. Well, as you can see, the poster depicts a group of Japanese youngster doing cheers over a glass of beer with caption “Let’s Enjoy Tokyo”.
What I want to emphasize here is the role and position of beer in Japanese people’s lives. Beer is one of their simple and easy “entertainment and refreshment”. Especially for kaishain (employee) who spend their day time working hard (working is really strict and tough in Japan), going home, take a bath (ofuro) and ended it with one or two cans of cold beer is kinda heavenly for them. If you watch dorama Hotaru no Hikari in which the main character always drinking beer at the porch at night time to relax her tension, that’s exactly what I meant.
Beer became a daily routine for most of them. At least I know several Japanese friends who always drink beer everyday (not to get drunk, just to relax all the tension and have a good sleep afterward).

Not only that, Japanese working culture also recognized “nomikai” or literally means “drinking communication” as part of their important afterwork session. Employees and supervisors will go together to izakaya or bar and drink together, at least beer. This is good to establish a smooth relationship and building trust among colleagues. Especially for juniors or new entrants. It is of course a bit difficult for people who dont drink for any reason, because if you dont involve in nomikai you will be seen as outsider (or at least refusing to mingle or socialize with others).

But worry not, it’s not Japan if it is not innovative. We can find 0.00% alcohol beer. It is basically a soda drink that tasted and smell similar like normal beer. The targets market for this product are women (less calorie and for pregnant women), those who cant drink alcohol and those who need to drive vehicle afterward. I tasted this one before and honestly I didnt like it. But I cant compare to normal beer because i never tried one xD

But the point is, drinking beer is quite normal in Japan. With 0.00% alcohol beer, Japan wanted everybody to be able to enjoy Japan to the fullest!